When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what tools are being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you selected option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will usually end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a website development application … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful add-ons that make your website highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built for a much smaller cost?
Does My Blog Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, or some other CMS.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
Look At Your Source Code
If you know how to search the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a telltale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(View the page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if your web site has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that tells you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just type the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one shown in the screen shot below …
To use this tool, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed on the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy to install and very easy to use web browser extension.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To visit the Wappalyzer add-on site, go here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, visit the site below:
We hope you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya